Politics and Prose Presents

A call for unity in the face of growing dehumanization of marginalized people-from a powerful voice in the dialogue on racism today.

The walk back on a commitment to diversity, equity and inclusion. The silence across communities as the undocumented, primarily Latino population faces attack. The grandstanding of nationalism and the intersection with white supremacy and ideas of genetic superiority. These issues are not temporary but rather exist on a continuum in the history of racism and divisiveness. Meeks, who has spent a lifetime fighting for racial justice and healing, offers collaborative strategies to fight systemic racism--together. She also addresses current cases with civil rights impact in areas such as zoning, voting, and immigration, and delivers a powerful message about the need for unity in combating these destructive decisions.

This moment, Meeks argues, shows that othering is alive and well in America and a continuation of white supremacy. She also believes the United States has been complicit in continuing the destabilization of other countries and the cycles of ethnic cleansing. Within Black communities, she explains, there is a hesitance to join the conversations, but the fight is one that demands solidarity. Resistance is necessary to dispel hierarchies of human value and combat the failure of institutions.

Dr. Catherine Meeks blends scholarly excellence with heartfelt activism, shaping her as a distinguished voice in socio-cultural studies and a beacon for community transformation. She spent 25 impactful years at Mercer University chairing the African American Studies Program and 9 years at Wesleyan College as the Clara Carter Acree Distinguished Professor of Socio-Cultural Studies. She is celebrated in both of these institutions for fostering a deep understanding of race, gender, and class among her students. Her literary contributions, include the reflective "The Night is Long but Light Comes in the Morning," and her memoir, "The Quilted Life, Reflections of A Sharecropper’s Daughter" which further underscore her commitment to racial healing and personal growth. Dr. Meeks' profound community impact is recognized by the President Joseph R. Biden Lifetime Achievement and Service Award and her distinction as one of Georgia Trend Magazine's notable women. Her engaging blogs and podcasts extend her influence, providing ongoing wisdom and inspiration. With honorary doctorates from Virginia Theological Seminary, the Seminary of the Southwest, and Berkeley Divinity School at Yale University, Dr. Meeks continues to illuminate paths toward understanding and collective wellness. Dr. Meeks’ expression of her commitment to wellness and freedom is captured in her current work as Founding Executive Director and Chief Midwife of the Turquoise and Lavender Institute for Transformation and Healing.

PURCHASE BOOK:

https://politics-prose.com/book/9781640659674?ic_referral=Oh1zNugcpHOTEh1fqlqmwNqg0aezlzx96yoR6m3qb9MwM7bk5dVG5GPQOBXHnjOQucQnHlD1MmsC1B1KTat7NK9Xh4GrT6sLEgFF_aHFgTAozVpVaaKdDxhPREf5aScYrVwKhzI

A rallying cry and resistance manual from one of the leaders breathing new life into the environmental movement.

As the climate emergency worsens and biodiversity shrinks, we humans get used to it—we adapt, we normalize, we forget. Scientists call this “shifting baseline syndrome” and warn that it’s why we are increasingly sleepwalking toward disaster. In this positive and inspiring manifesto, the environmental activist and longtime editor-in-chief of Sierra magazine Jason Dove Mark offers an antidote, focusing on four simple but powerful rules that everyone can use to resist environmental amnesia: Go outside. Bear witness. Make a record. Pass it on. Mark makes the case for easy, everyday practices that can help us “remember the Earth” and support environmental conservation, restoration, and rewilding. And he shares moving examples of citizen scientists, birdwatchers, mountain climbers, and fishermen across the country who are putting them into practice. The Earth Said Remember Me is a hopeful, achievable prescription for protecting the planet, one citizen at a time.

Jason Dove Mark has served as editor-in-chief of Sierra and editor of Earth Island Journal. His writing has appeared in the New York Times, Los Angeles Times, San Francisco Chronicle, and the Atlantic. He lives in the Pacific Northwest.

Mark is in conversation Mike Tidwell, a journalist, author, and climate activist living in Takoma Park, MD. His most recent book is an exploration of global warming’s impact in his own front yard, called The Lost Trees of Willow Avenue: A story of Climate and Hope on One American Street (St. Martin’s Press, March 2025). Publishers Weekly magazine named the book one of the best nonfiction books of 2025. A passionate conservationist, he founded the Chesapeake Climate Action Network in 2002, where he has led local and national campaigns for clean energy. He lives on Willow Avenue in Takoma Park, MD with his wife Beth and their cat Macy Gray.

PURCHASE BOOK:

https://politics-prose.com/book/9781324117889?ic_referral=uJq8gFBT8urMbLNW_e45bhzF2r9gxFVh7zJUakdS-iMwM2GSDFwsmVJ2EYGgKBRr_ofqZmNARbhsqjUb1kX24vdIe03-QO3OAF1kZ4-zXIV33Y474JCV3i-RuHuEJXUvcQVUCQk

"Ben Wikler is one of the most strategic and respected leaders of his generation. If we do what this book says, we will win."—Nancy Pelosi

From one of the most successful Democratic strategists of the last decade, a revelatory account of what you—yes, you—can do to defeat Trumpism.

This Is the Plan is a hope-unleashing answer for anyone who has looked at the wreckage of American politics and asked: How the hell do we get out of this mess? Ben Wikler, hailed as the “preeminent state party chair” by Nancy Pelosi, led Wisconsin Democrats through a series of hold-your-breath fights against right-wing extremists that resulted, against the odds, in the unrigging of the political system of the most divided—and, until recently, most gerrymandered—state in the nation. Now, he draws on decades of experience in everything from school-board races to presidential elections to bring readers inside the hidden web of power that shapes our lives. At every step, he shows what individuals and small groups can do to help build a future where democracy thrives and our country works for everyone. With verve, infectious humor, and a rallying-cry energy that has inspired tens of thousands of volunteers, This Is the Plan is the book so many Americans have been waiting for: An idealistic-yet-practical guide to turning the present crisis into a better future.

Ben Wikler is an American political organizer and strategist who served as the chair of the Democratic Party of Wisconsin from July 2019 to July 2025.

Wikler will be joined in conversation with Nancy Pelosi & Judy Woodruff.

Nancy Pelosi was elected the 52nd Speaker of the House in 2007—and served as the first woman Speaker for eight years, off and on until 2023. She came to Congress in 1987 for the children and to fight HIV/AIDS. Under Pelosi’s leadership, Congress enacted transformative legislation, most notably the Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act. A defender of democracy, she directed House efforts to investigate the January 6th insurrection and has spoken out forcefully for human rights globally. Pelosi continues to represent San Francisco in the House, a privilege she has treasured for thirty-seven years. Pelosi and her husband, Paul, have five children and ten grandchildren. 

Judy Woodruff is a senior correspondent and the former anchor and managing editor of the PBS News Hour. She has covered politics and other news for five decades at NBC, CNN and PBS.

PURCHASE BOOK:

https://politics-prose.com/book/9781324131434?ic_referral=v_7OE3V1sU2uq5bswA7_DIJQs457bqQsf96A3oOY2M0wMwlLBRo5oldnN3fvcK4MA6G0xqhYOWXn-u1LAzr3aTGu92wzFv7MrC083w4O6PD4VvtLvAKJyXmDKPhWIPR4HuCJ2kg

Why settle for nothing, when you can steal everything?
Forget banks, casinos, museums—society’s most valuable treasure sits in the giant, anonymous data centers that power modern life. There, in endless rows of hard drives, lies the sum of our civilization’s knowledge, all of the world’s personal and private truths, uploaded and saved. They wait unseen, unexploited, and, most critically, unguarded.
Tim is a climate journalist disillusioned with chronicling the end of the world. Virginia is an evasive, paranoid, and technologically savvy con artist who has found an ingenious way to live off the grid in the heart of Manhattan. Joined by desire and desperation, they hatch a plan to steal secrets. But they have secrets of their own—secrets they can’t tell each other, secrets that could destroy them both...
With their last few dollars and some dimestore wigs they set out for the outskirts of Tulsa, Oklahoma, the unlikely site of the world’s largest repository of knowledge—a data center the size of a small city—to attempt a brazen heist that, whether they fail or succeed, will change their lives forever.
But the heist is only the beginning. 
From the award-winning author Nathaniel Rich, Cloudthief is a heist novel for a new era, in which the most valuable things in life are virtual, privacy is a sick joke, and security is relative. After all is lost, what remains?

Nathaniel Rich is the author of Cloudthief (2026) and three previous novels, all New York Times Book Review Editors’ Choice selections: King Zeno (2018); Odds Against Tomorrow (2013); and The Mayor's Tongue (2008). His short fiction has won the Emily Clark Balch Prize and been a two-time finalist for the National Magazine Award for Fiction. He has also written two works of nonfiction: Second Nature (2021), which includes the story that serves as the basis for the film Dark Waters; and Losing Earth (2019), a finalist for the PEN/E.O. Wilson Literary Science Writing Award. Losing Earth is being adapted into a film directed by Tom McCarthy.
Rich is a contributing writer for The New York Times Magazine and a frequent contributor to The Atlantic, Harper’s, and The New York Review of Books. A 2025 Guggenheim Fellow, he teaches at Tulane University and lives in New Orleans.

Rich is in conversation with Michael Svoboda, who joined the University Writing Program at The George Washington University in 2005, shortly after earning his interdisciplinary PhD from Penn State University, where he had owned and operated a bookstore for 17 years. Michael is also affiliated with GW’s Alliance for a Sustainable Future, for which, after working with the Sustainability Minor in several different capacities, he now serves as Senior Advisor for Academic Programs and Outreach. As a writer/critic, he has been a regular contributor to Yale Climate Connections and, since 2021, its book editor. Standouts among the many features and “bookshelves” he has contributed are his pieces on climate fiction, both in print and on the screen. “Cli-fi” films will be the focus of his final sabbatical from GW.  

PURCHASE:

https://politics-prose.com/book/9780374619794?ic_referral=labEZGCllngxh0Json3bEP7jKkwA195KZAbiEuyC3CwwMzT5-js6x7E4nfb6IQqWqK6idcs9xXy_ktte30dqixsIFGgp-LANT4uNlpOGEH7oYGek1IJovvnX1kpjPSzUKHQ7sLo

A bold, culturally resonant guide to reclaiming boundaries, protecting your peace, and choosing yourself without guilt.
Choose you. Every single time.
In a world that constantly demands more, it’s easy to lose sight of who you are and what you truly need. You say “yes” to people who are never satisfied. Each day you give more of yourself away while putting your own dreams on hold. That ends here. It ends now.
In YES TO YOU, NO TO THEM, New York Times bestselling author and podcaster Wallo267 delivers sharp truths, affirmations, and reflections that encourage you to let go of what refuses to grow. Drawing from lived experience, cultural insight, and hard-earned lessons, Wallo267 speaks directly to the pressures of modern life, from social media comparison and emotional exhaustion to misplaced loyalty and the fear of disappointing others. The message is clear—your peace is sacred, your energy is valuable, and your life belongs to you.
When you’re ready to say “yes” to your power and priorities, this book is your passport to living a full, fulfilling life. Whether you’re building a business, navigating relationships, or craving contentment, YES TO YOU, NO TO THEM meets you where you are and pushes you to where you want to be. It’s time to reclaim your boundaries, protect your peace, and choose your path of growth with boldness and confidence.

Wallace "Wallo267" Peeples is a New York Times best-selling author, cultural advisor at YouTube, former chief marketing officer of REFORM Alliance, and co-host of the globally influential podcast Million Dollaz Worth of Game. After serving twenty years behind bars, he transformed his life into a platform for accountability, discipline, and reinvention.

Wallo is in conversation with Yasmine Cheyenne, a TODAY Show wellness expert and three-time author whose work helps millions reconnect with who they were before the world had a say. Through three books with HarperCollins—The Sugar Jar, Wisdom of the Path, and The Comeback Era—plus partnerships with global corporations such as Google, Pepsi, GE, Well & Good, Meta, and more, she's become the trusted guide for creating a life that feels as good as it looks. An Air Force Veteran, TEDx speaker, and mother of two, Yasmine proves that whether you're setting boundaries, navigating challenges, or ready for your comeback, transformation is always possible.

PURCHASE BOOK:

https://politics-prose.com/book/9798318605956?ic_referral=9nlm2lV0cYmyhfg-yxsN9IPBxqAhEi1s-oqbD3zK0cwwMz8rx0L3QN6NjnDcK9mKeda9TT_FxIaQVywjPCY1w-CnOBLvaPm0hzZ8_pH4PLphbLeJHfYFAUgA4xwD6u4u9iVODMQ

The inside story of one of the most successful US foreign aid programs in the Middle East in recent decades

What happens when the United States launches an unconventional foreign aid program in the aftermath of a national uprising? In this behind-the-scenes account of the Egyptian-American Enterprise Fund--a private investment fund created by the U.S. Congress to jumpstart Egypt's private sector after the 2011 Egyptian revolution A Daring Enterprise tells the story of one of the most effective, yet little known, U.S. foreign policy programs today in the Middle East.

Through the firsthand account of the Fund's chairman James Harmon, a veteran investment banker and former Clinton administration official, the authors reveal how a small, U.S.-backed investment fund partnered with Egyptians to spark investment, create jobs, and expand opportunities for women in the Arab world's largest country--all against a backdrop of political instability, anti-Americanism, and Washington dysfunction.

At a time when America's budget deficit is rising and foreign aid is being scaled back, A Daring Enterprise reveals how a new model of foreign assistance can tackle urgent development challenges while delivering real returns for U.S. taxpayers. Most importantly, it is a powerful reminder of the value of foreign aid and why smart foreign investment is key to America's future prosperity.

Cornelius Queen is senior vice-president at the Egyptian-American Enterprise Fund. He previously managed a humanitarian aid program in Lebanon during the Syrian refugee crisis, served as a legislative aide in the U.S. Congress, and was a member of the Carter Center's election observation mission during Egypt's 2011-2012 elections. He holds an MA from the Fletcher School of Law and Diplomacy at Tufts University and a BA from Johns Hopkins University. He is a term member at the Council on Foreign Relations. 

Queen is in conversation Krish O’Mara Vignarajah, an American lawyer serving as President and CEO of Global Refuge. She previously served in the Obama White House as Policy Director for First Lady Michelle Obama and at the State Department as Senior Advisor under Secretary of State Hillary Clinton and Secretary of State John Kerry.

PURCHASE:

https://politics-prose.com/book/9781649035059?ic_referral=BYXIfkb67J8jEu6lVhiBXqxTrZR0DRw9CJomezvTTX4wMwDAW5Epes_dCQ2syJNzcbD2tyvAYifEdAJA2S0C9Hh9QqyEL7OvNGI1tecXAD4rg9DNqV2jSh0zgUBOV-M9k2RcHBs

Have you ever taken a really good look at the bottom half of a bird? At long last, this birding guide from esteemed birder and New Yorker cartoonist Tommy Siegel, author of Candy Hearts, reveals the truth about the powerful legs and shapely rear ends that power our feathered friends to the skies! 
There's a reason brilliant naturalists from Audubon to Sibley have relied on illustration to bring birds to life on the page: Birds move remarkably fast and are often obscured by foliage; it would be nearly impossible to photograph them. But birding enthusiast and comic artist Tommy Siegel noticed a theme in these artists' guides: Their renderings focus too heavily on birds' wings and plumage while reducing their lower limbs to simple sticks. Could birds really achieve such varied feats of athleticism and migratory endurance if they had such rudimentary legs? 
Now, Tommy is poised to revolutionize the field of ornithology with his interpretation of how birds' beautiful legs and posteriors must truly appear (based on educated scientific guesses gleaned from observing their behavior in the field). The result is Extremely Accurate Birds, perhaps the most anatomically precise collection of bird illustrations ever assembled. Pairing his trailblazing bird drawings with (actually accurate, for real) birding tips on more than eighty common species found across North America, Tommy has created an essential addition to any birder's shelf.

Tommy Siegel is a birder, cartoonist, and touring musician. As a cartoonist, he has amassed a viral following for his popular Candy Hearts and Extremely Accurate Birds series, among others. As a musician, he has played more than 1,000 shows around the world as a singer and guitarist in Jukebox the Ghost. More recently on his “Extremely Accurate Bird Songs” podcast, he and his co-host strive to write a song for every bird species.

Siegel is in conversation Billy Libby, a touring musician with Ingrid Michaelson in addition to his career as an award-winning film, TV and podcast composer for outlets such as Time Magazine, the Wall Street Journal, several Gimlet media podcasts, and Apple TV’s Slumberkins, among others. Born in Portland, Maine, he now lives in Brooklyn, NY. In addition to composition work, he releases original music under the moniker Fort Gorgeous on all streaming platforms.

PURCHASE BOOK:

https://politics-prose.com/book/9798894140186?ic_referral=7zkkwChYcn1SXyjaCYAq-ployNJg7IbKndmXEbASu_wwM_flxIeNFaQpzgvX0hCEFGwLrkwDrdKdql9N8lxjUDGrg-S4wB4ZC7mRXKdqnM_a0zXOyesTZ-rU1UcGMgamOFT2T5M

Politics and Prose has partnered with The Atlantic for an evening of discussion surrounding the magazine’s July issue, published on the occasion of the 250th anniversary of the United States, on "How to Tell the American Story.” Atlantic staff writer Clint Smith and deputy executive editor Yoni Appelbaum will explore their articles from the issue, including Smith’s report on “Being Black in Pete Hegseth’s Military” and Appelbaum’s “How America Gave Up on Its Own History.” They will discuss their approach to research and writing these magazine features, before broadening the discussion to the state of America at its 250th anniversary.

Clint Smith is a staff writer at The Atlantic. He is the author of the narrative nonfiction book, How the Word Is Passed, and the poetry collections, Counting Descent and Above Ground. Yoni Appelbaum is a deputy executive editor of The Atlantic. Before joining The Atlantic, he was a lecturer on history and literature at Harvard University. He is the author of Stuck.

J Brooke's I Can Tell You the Version That Will Make You Take My Side begins in a childhood full of binaries, then navigates through an American queer / trans / nonbinary adulthood fraught with complexities including the question of top-surgery.

J Brooke’s work is known for exploring gender, family, and the incendiary combination of the two. With this, their first book, they deliver candid commentary on a unique gender journey. Born intrinsically male, assigned female at birth, and raised in affluent dysfunction in New York City, their gender expression attempted male, cis straight female, and cis gay female before embracing a nonbinary identity. Living without surgical or hormonal interventions, their struggle to find authentic place traverses female anatomy, friendship, suicide, family, testosterone, politics, packers, social media, motherhood, royalty, natural phenomena, cancer, marriage, and the Pope. Brooke is Prose Reviews Editor at The Rumpus, and lives in New England with their beautiful spouse Beatrice.

Brooke is joined in conversation with Aaron Hamburger, the author of the story collection The View from Stalin’s Head, winner of the Rome Prize in Literature from the American Academy of Arts and Letters, and the novels Faith for Beginners, nominated for a Lambda Literary Award, Nirvana Is Here, winner of a Bronze Medal from the Foreword Reviews Indies Book Awards, and Hotel Cuba, winner of the Bridge Book Award for American Fiction. His writing has appeared in The New York Times, The Washington Post, O, The Oprah Magazine, Tablet, The Forward; and numerous other publications. He lives in Washington, DC.

PURCHASE BOOK:

https://politics-prose.com/product/i-can-tell-you-version-will-make-you-take-my-side-j-brooke?v=3924935&ic_referral=eiRCBu1oWFPKzttxTg1_XvNJdvhoDfRON2MIPHP7enMwM9dk50M_qlBaxEP5tlJlpUHNmwySbQwRRP9xPeQjMwoHqEw8PlFEssdWuTOlDyFzHiXeEf8oY7xWVrkBZCoQQz58W8M

From the author of Florence Adler Swims Forever and The House Is on Fire, a novel set on a remote Italian island about a navy wife’s reckoning with power, love, and the price of staying silent in the Atomic Age.
When twenty-three-year-old Eileen O’Malley meets charismatic naval officer Paul Archer in a Charleston department store, she doesn’t expect to fall so hard, so fast. But Paul is funny and ambitious, and soon, Eileen’s got a ring on her finger and is following him to the tiny, sun-drenched Mediterranean island of La Maddalena, where Paul will be heading up Radiological Controls aboard a submarine tender.
In La Maddalena, Eileen joins a makeshift community of navy wives who are hell-bent on making the island feel a little more like home. But for Eileen, whose brother died in Vietnam, home is a loaded word, and as she settles into life on the island—taking Italian lessons and learning to make culurgiones—she begins to love the place for all the ways it is not like where she comes from.
Still, it doesn’t take long for Eileen to be confronted with the complexities of being an American abroad. The decision to send nuclear-powered subs into the La Maddalena Archipelago was a contentious one, and the U.S. government is doing whatever it can to ensure that the island—not to mention all of Italy—doesn’t go communist in the next election.
When Italian activists and scientists begin to sound the alarm about possible nuclear contamination in the water, the island erupts in a series of protests, made worse by the ongoing mishaps of the U.S. Navy. Soon, Eileen’s marriage falters and her loyalties begin to shift as she is drawn into a web of secrets—and to a local journalist who forces her to imagine a life beyond the one she’s been handed.
Atmospheric, sexy, and quietly defiant, The Half Life is a story of love, complicity, and awakening—of one woman forced to choose between loyalty to her husband and country and to the Italian locals who show her the high cost of American exceptionalism.

Rachel Beanland is the author of The House Is on Fire and Florence Adler Swims Forever, which won the National Jewish Book Award for Debut Fiction. She is a graduate of the University of South Carolina and earned her MFA in creative writing from Virginia Commonwealth University. She lives with her family in Richmond, Virginia.

Beanland is in conversation with Brian Castleberry, whose first novel, Nine Shiny Objects, was a NYT Editor's Choice and long-listed for the PEN/Faulkner Award. His stories and essays have been published in Southern Review, LitHub, Narrative, the Los Angeles Review of Books, and elsewhere. His second novel, The Californians, is out now in paperback from Mariner Books. He teaches at William & Mary, where he is director of the creative writing program. 

PURCHASE BOOK:

https://politics-prose.com/book/9781668069134?ic_referral=dVWXHXZh6NOAPtFxzLwWCvFvOhdpoOHm_xldXmIDLcYwM7GwRt1sQzHIdpV5TuajlwE5fHkBUfg1urn59yz4LhBfSBUgfMzIU5POPw6A3mfHqgR86BqX1kNseSDvWAs1tIjkZpI